An ever-increasing number of organisations are relying upon various outside partners in which to outsource their IT services and experts across the industry hold the belief that the IT Managed Services market will reach £356 billion by 2025.
What are IT Managed Services?
IT Managed Services models are a form of outsourcing certain IT functionalities, such as help desk or security, to an external provider backed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA). The contractual agreement between provider and client usually spans one to three years, and the SLA guarantees a certain level of service provided to the client and their organisation, providing 24/7 support as well as a reconciliation service following any issues, downtime or long-term problems.
The MSP is tasked with updating, managing, and remotely monitoring your organisations, IT functions. Additionally, your MSP may also offer a reporting service for not just technical tasks that have been completed to ensure the maintenance of your IT solutions, but also the intelligence data taken from the information, traffic and overall IT activities. This will enable your business to profit from the information provided and will help you to make more informed decisions regarding strategic and tactical business plans or decisions, optimising your organisation’s performance and efficiency.
MSP’s in recent times have spent more time and effort in increasing the time spent with their customers, investigating strategic issues outside of everyday technical and IT concerns. 40% of MSP’s stated that they had spent time with their customers, either remotely or in-person, focused on helping to plan the organisations future in stakeholder or board meetings and helping them to align their goals for the future.
What is a Managed Service Provider?
The role of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) is to manage the IT systems proactively in tandem with preventing any cybersecurity threats and downtime, allowing maximum effectiveness and productivity. There is a multitude of IT managed services that can be utilised by an organisation and we’ve created a guide to explore each of them, to allow you to make an educated decision on outsourcing these capabilities.
There are many different types of IT managed services and most MSP’s will provide a wide range of them, tailored to your business requirements. Here are the different main types of managed services:
Managed Networks and Infrastructure
These services are used mainly for high-performance, secure and cost-effective networking, including managed IP VPN’s. Managed hosting and storage services also fall under this section of managed services, and they primarily remove the cost of supporting a data centre from your organisation. Under a Service Level Agreement (SLA), an MSP will provide this themselves. Similarly, managed Wide Area Networks (WAN’s), Local-Area Network (LAN), managed gateways and automated network support reduce the overall ownership costs involved in supporting these functions.
Managed Security Services
This managed service provides a wide range of IT managed solutions ranging from antivirus, malware protection, patch management and a variety of other security updates, completed remotely. According to research conducted recently by Pinsent Masons, 82% of IT professionals state they plan to outsource their managed security services to an MSP in the coming year. Businesses are keen to bolster their security services to avoid detrimental scenarios such as customer data loss or business-wide malware attacks.
Managed security services are often utilised for the following three functions:
- Anti-Malware Software:Software installed on your organisation’s network to keep your data and your customer’s data safe from cyber hacks or threats.
- Patching and Maintenance:Your MSP will ensure your network and software is up to date with the latest software updates to keep hackers and viruses from breaching your security protocols and infesting your system.
- Application Compatibility: Ensures all of your company’s hardware components and programs are fully compatible with one another and integrated into the more extensive network.
Managed Support Services
During regular business operations, your members of staff may face issues or problems with a specific system, program, protocol or prompt. A managed support service means each staff member will have the ability to make contact with a remote help centre for guidance, advice and fix options for any given problem.
Support services range in levels of support based on the SLA, but the coverage usually includes help with computer desktop programs and software to issues with particular hardware. The goal for an MSP is to implements and manage applications remotely fo the client and ensure that fixes are available quickly and without the need for members of staff to become hands-on with the software when not necessary.
While site-wide issues are often rare, MSP’s are in place to ensure the timely resolution of any problems that do arise, assuring your organisation’s downtime is kept to an absolute minimum, increasing your cost-efficiency, profitability and productivity.
Managed Data Analytics Services
MSP’s are being used more and more in the analysation and acquisition of data that can reveal any trends or patterns, that can be used in organisations strategies for optimising their entire business model. In the past, this type of service has been used to track the traffic at different times throughout the day. With this data, companies can target their broader marketing strategies, staffing schedules, inventory and supply chain to coincide with high traffic trends, optimising their overall efforts and improving their cost-efficiency.
Managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
An MSP may provide software programs for your company that can be subscribed to for unlimited access for the duration of your SLA. The SaaS could be a program developed and implemented by the IT provider or one that the MSP makes accessible and manageable from a third party. The MSP will ensure all updates, patches and upgrades are remotely installed in the instance they become available, guaranteeing your service is always kept at the optimal level and allowing your staff to remain solely focused on the business needs.
SaaS provides the peace of mind and comfort needed as a business to know your systems are always secure, up to date and performing at the optimal level.
Managed Cloud Infrastructure Services
With this service, MSP’s manage their client’s computing, networks, operating systems and storage. It can also incorporate the tools, databases and platforms that run with the infrastructure. This service is often built from a selection of functions chosen by the client.
Cloud-based models must always suit the needs and suitability of the client and their organisation. By partnering with an MSP offering cloud infrastructure, you can focus on your core business and avoid the need to learn cloud systems, employ engineers either contracted or permanent and have the peace of mind that professionals are managing your cloud services.
Managed Communications Services
A managed communications service combines data, video and voice services onto the same IP network. In conjunction with these services, it can also include a managed contact centre that uses a combination of traditional call centre features, equipped with integrated email, phone, web, fax, instant messaging and other forms of customer contact. It also often features intelligent IP call routing. Here is a short explanation of the three primary managed communication services:
- Data:This allows your staff to share and send data and information across any computing device, such as laptops or mobile devices, from any location, both internally and externally in a secure way.
- Voice:Allows staff to speak to their colleagues in single settings or wider group calls for meetings and discussions. Again, this can be done on any device in various locations.
- Video:This makes it easy for your business to hold video conferences and meetings, securely, where members can join meetings from anywhere in the world on any device.
Managed communication services allow organisation-wide synergy that couldn’t be enjoyed without utilising a managed service, without significant cost to your business.
Managed Wireless and Mobile Computing Services
Similar to the management of hosting and storage, this service focuses on the same capabilities; however, the wireless aspect allows excellent savings from the absence of physical implementation.
Today’s business requirements make mobile devices crucial to the staff and management of any company. By equipping your organisation with integrated mobile software services that allow your entire team the ability to connect to the network from any location, necessary ensures complete synchronicity amongst your workforce. It also eases the transfer of information, allowing a more remote and flexible workforce.
Managed Print Services
Often viewed as an outlier in the managed services framework, managed print services allow the remote monitoring, management and updating of an organisation’s management structure in terms of documentation. It also means gaining transparency and control over your businesses printing services, allowing your boost your cost-efficiency and environmental sustainability.
To read more about IT managed services and how they benefit your business specifically, check out the services section of our website – https://premieritsolution.co.uk/
What are the Benefits of Utilising Managed Services?
Any decision made for your business relies on a few key factors to ensure the right choice is made. IT managed services are incredibly popular with organisations with 64% utilising managed services for at least one IT functionality. There are many reasons why managed services are so popular, and we’ve listed the top ten here:
- Less Business Downtime
- Cost Savings Throughout your Business
- Improved Security
- Proactive IT Issues Approach
- Access to Cutting Edge Technology and Information
- Less Workload on Existing Staff
- Peace of Mind
- Lack of Internal IT Team
- Increased Accessibility to Cloud Services
- Remote Handling of IT Issues
How are Managed Services Purchased?
Similarly, to any other utility, you can pay for your managed services with a subscription-based service plan, allowing you to create an operational expense instead of impacting your capital budget for on-premise infrastructure. The terms can vary from each month to an annual payment and some MSP’s offer a pay as you go service.
Managed services can prove to be incredibly beneficial to your business for many reasons, aiding in everything from cost-efficiency, productivity and profitability. Managed services will also support the growth of your organisation with the cost of increasing the size of your operation significantly less costly than if your capabilities were kept internally. The services will also keep you at the forefront of your industry in terms of technological capacity and sustainability. The solutions are versatile and are designed for the needs and requirements of your business.
Premier IT Solution provides managed IT services strategized and executed to improve your organisation immeasurably. Our services offer unmatched business IT support and complete IT security for your business. We believe that IT security and support are the two critical factors in business, and we focus on both. We offer services for organisations of all shapes and sizes from start-ups to those firms with over 500 users.
Our 30+ years of experience in the industry allows us to tailor packages for your requirements, and we have become well known for bespoke managed IT services. We offer 24/7 support, a forward-thinking approach to ensure your business growth is always a priority and pride ourselves on first-class support and delivery. Our services have been provided in over 47 locations worldwide across over 250 successful projects.
For more information about our managed IT services and to speak to a consultant, contact us here – https://premieritsolution.co.uk/contact-us/ or you can get in touch over email or phone at 020 3393 3003, Sales@premieritsolution.co.uk, Technical@premieritsolution.co.uk.